Kyiv: Russia has deployed 53,000 soldiers on Ukrainian border
Russia is maintaining vast military forces along the Ukrainian border, with as many as 53,000 soldiers there at the end of December 2018, reports Uninform with reference to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
“The Russian Federation is continuing to expand its military groups close to the Ukrainian state border. Notably, as of the end of December 2018, on Ukraine’s border and in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, 28 tactical battalion groups were deployed. The total number of the mentioned troops (without taking into account those stationed in the temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk provinces) is roughly 53,000 soldiers,” the ministry reported.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko recently said that Russia has been reinforcing its military presence on the Ukrainian border throughout autumn. According to Poroshenko, Russia currently has 28 tactical battalion groups there, with 80,000 soldiers, 1,120 tanks, 2,600 armored vehicles, 1,230 artillery systems, 442 multiple rocket launchers, and 6 tactical operational missile systems.